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Do New York pigeons sound different from California pigeons? I'm not sure, but The Smalls Street Sounds could help me find out.

The new interactive online project aims to create a sort of sonic landscape of the U.S. by overlaying local sound snippets on Google Maps. Clicking through the 270-plus clips uploaded as of late Wednesday afternoon offers an imaginative audio tour from East to West and in between. It's a great way to relive the drama of a tropical Florida thunderstorm, amble through San Francisco's Chinatown, or visit that Radio Shack in Danbury, Conn., you've always wanted to check out.

Some sounds are decidedly location-specific (subway performers in New City, a Vegas casino, a student demonstration Berkeley), while others could be heard anywhere (phones ringing, steam heaters sputtering, doors closing, zippers being zipped, plastic crinkling, computer keyboards tapping). You'll hear traffic, boots on pavement, trains, buses, wind, crying children, the sounds of running in snow--all captivating in their own way.

The Sound Map is a project of The Smalls, a curator of independent short films whose mission is to "champion the use of diverse and inspiring sounds in filmmaking and support talented artists who use sounds in a creative way to tell their stories and convey their own unique vision."

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John

...it appeares no other thing
to mee, then a foule and pestilent congregation of vapours.
What a piece of worke is a man!